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'HE POSITION AND COURSE OF THE SOUTH. 



THE 



POSITION AND COURSE 



THE SOUTH. 



V 



BY WM. H. TRESCOT, ESQ. 



CHARLESTON: 

STEAM POWER-PRESS OF WALKER ct JAMES. 

18.50. 






PREFACE 



This pamphlet lias been prepared and published at 
the request of those whose years, position and reputa- 
tion, entitled their suggestions to respectful attention. 
If it meets their views, and aids in the slightest degree 
to strengthen Sq^uthern resolution, the author will feel 
grateful for the opportunity aflbrded him to perform 
even so small a service. The views it attem23ts to 
illustrate are not new, but they are Southern, and the 
foct, that in widely separated portions of our South- 
ern country these opinions have impressed themselves 
upon minds difterent in temper, proves that we are 
beginning to think for ourselves — the first stej) towards 
acting for ourselves. 

WM. HENRY TRESCOT. 

OctoleT 12th, 1850. 



THE POSITION AND COURSE OF THE SOUTH. 



If history teaches any one lesson more empliatically than another, it 
is, that political institutions are never destroyed by intiuences foreign to 
themselves. Wherever, therefore in the history of government, there 
have been two contending classes, the success of the one has been 
achieved by the inconsistency of the other. The reformation was begun 
by a Catholic Priest. The feudal system was destroyed by absolute 
monarchs. The revolutiuu of 1688 was the work of the whig aristoc- 
racy, as was the reform bill of a later period — and the French revolution, 
so often misquoted, was the joint labour of intidel Priests and democrat 
nobles. 

And the warning which points this univeisal lesson, assumes a spe- 
cial signiHcance at times like the present, when the marked character- 
istic of political life is the violent and uncomjiromising antagonism of 
great interests. Look to what quarter you may of the civilized world, 
and every where, government which should be almost judicial in its de- 
cision upon the complicated claims of national interests, has become 
simply the executive expression of a triumpant class. And every where 
great and contending interests struggle for power, not as a trust, Ijut as 
a monopoly. In governments, the most consolidated — amid popula- 
tions the must homogeneous, this truth is illustrating itself with de- 
structive energy. What, for example, is now the great political diffi- 
culty in England, but that there two classes, two great interests are 
contending for legislative power — the landholder and the manufacturer. 
The one reasons thus : The feudal system carved England into great 
estates — to the crown — to the church — to the nobles each its share. 
The fundamental relation from the king to the crown, was that of land- 
lord and tenant — of owner and occupier. The revenues of the crown 
came from land and the landholders represented the productive power 
of the nation. From this system urocceded the whole past history of 
Enghind. Thence sprung tiiat magnificent Common Law, broad and 
sure in its foundations as the soil, ami as varied and prolific in its rich 
results — thence rose that life of exquisite civilization, the product of 
past energy and present cultivation, and thence only can come the pow- 
er to preserve whence came the vigour to create. If England is to be 
the free monarchy of its past history, it must be the England of land- 
holders. And the logical consequences are limited representation, 
and the corn laws. The other reasons thus : England has falsified the 
conditions of feudal life — the basis of her em})ire is no longer En<>lish 
soil — her colonial territories represent no connection of landlord and 
tenant — the crown no longer d.'avvs its revenue from royal forests — the 



6 THE I'OSITION AND COURSE OF THE SOUTH. 

sails of Liverpool, and the looms of Manchester, symbolize the relation 
of cai)ital and labour. From this new relation must England's future 
history liow ; thence must spriiiif the controlling power of foreign mark- 
ets ; the mighty trade of England's wider emjMre ; and thence only can 
come the vigour to create, whence comes the power to conceive. If 
England is to be an empire of the fhture, she must be the England of 
manufacturers. And the logical consecjuences are the reform bill and 
the repeal of the corn laws. But fatal as is such a struggle to the effi- 
ciency and character of national action, even in its mildest shape, there 
are conditions of political society in whicli the conflict of vast and sec- 
tional interests, concentrates into the portentous issue of a mortal strife. 
The confederacy of the United States has reached this period in its his- 
tory. The legislation of the present Congress has effected a political 
revolution. It has destroyed old relations and rejected established com- 
promises. Basing its action upon a princij)le recognized only by a por- 
tion of its constituency; the government, in becoming the exponent of 
one class, becomes necessarily also the enemy of the other. And hav- 
ing, in violation of traditional faith and constitutional securities, achieved 
its jiurpose, it foists an unknown language into its commentary upon 
the constitution, and forces upon half the commonwealth the bitter al- 
ternative of becoming subjects or rebels. The California bill and its 
kindred measures have been passed ; the policy of the federal govern- 
ment firmly and distinctly declared, and the institution of slavery so far 
as by any ))ossibility of constitutional construction it can be compassed, 
is outlawed. Under these circumstances, whether the South recognizes 
or rejects recent Congressional enactments, we are called on to review our 
position. For if we remain in the Union, we are bound by new condi- 
tions; stand in a very altered attitude, and should, at our earliest op- 
portunity, learn to know our place. The object of these pages is, there- 
fore, simply to ascertain what is the position of the South and what 
course of action it behoves us to follow in the discharge of our duties 
as a slaveholding people. 

The vindication of slavery is no part of our purpose. We know that 
Providence h;vs placed us in the midst of an institution which we can- 
not, as we value national existence, destroy. It h;vs solved for us in the 
wisest manner, that most dangerous of social (piestions, the relation of 
labour to ca]iital, by making that relation a moral one. It has devel- 
oped the physical wealth of the country in its highest, that is, its agri- 
cultural branch, in unprecedented j^roportion. It has created a civiliza- 
tion combining in admirable measure energy and refinement. It in- 
forms all our habits of thought, lies at the basis of our political faith 
and of our social existence. In a word, for all that we are, we be- 
lieve ourselves, under < rod, indebted to the institution of slavery — for a 
national existence, a well ordered liberty, a prosperous agriculture, an 
exulting commerce, a free people, and a firm government. And where 
God has ]ilaced us, there, without argument, are we resolved to remain, 
between the graves of our fathers and the homes of our clii'dren. The 
only questions open now for our discussion are, what arc the dangers 
we have to meet, and what arc our means of meeting them. As 
historical truths, affording jmimpt answers to these questions, we sub- 



THE POSITION AND COURSE OF THE SOUTH. 7 

luit to the attention of every Southern mean who desires to do his duty 
at this perilous crisis, the tbllowing propositions : 

1. That all legitimate government is but the larger development of 
the same principles which underlie the social institutions of a nation, 
and that therefore the test of national health is a perfect sympathy be- 
tween national government and popular institutions. 

2. That the institutions of the slaveholding States are peculiar in their 
nature, ditleriiig in most essential features of jiolitical character from 
the political system of the rest of the country. 

3. That this difference has excited a sectional jealousy, which, in the 
oplitical history of the country has deepened into sectional hostility, and 
that by recent legislation, the Federal Government has declared itself 
the ally of the North and North-west against the institutions of the 
South. 

4. That in such a political crisis the only safety of the South is the 
ei?tablishmeut of a political centre within itself ; in simpler words, the 
formation of an independent nation. 

We shall include the two first propositions under one head, as the 
one is, in a great measure, but the illustration of the other. 

An effort, in a practical political discussion, to resort to first principles, 
is always difficult, if not dangerous. For scarcely a human action, and 
none of the great events of history can be traced to the simple working 
of a single principle. And, in the varied process of investigation, terms 
originally clear and definite, assume necessary and sometimes strange 
modifications, in order to meet the exigencies of a complicated argu- 
ment. The word government is a fertile illustration of these difficulties 
of definition. It is applied aUke to the absolutism of Ptussia and to the 
republicanism of America ; although this mutual application to subjects, 
differing not in degree, but in kind, is iri'econcilable with truth. As at 

T 1 ■ • 1 

present used, it must mean one ot two very contradictory things ; either 
a power above and beyond the people, shaping their fortunes according 
to its fvisdom — and it is easy to conceive such a power, deriving its ori- 
gin from peculiar circumstances in national history, and thus possessed 
of a historical legitimacy, which a conservative philosophy would 
anxiously respect — or the mere administrative machinery, by which a 
people regulate the economical necessities of political life, and execute 
the resolutions of the national will. Administrations like these are 
widely different, and when they are loosely comprehended under the 
same name, it can only be, because the latter, in the exercise of neces- 
sary power, too often seeks justification in the analogies of a doubtful 
political generalization. It is not difficult to understand how a power 
like the first, independent of, and elevated above, local interest, might, 
with energy and wisdom, guide the course of a nation composed of very 
dissimilar'material. Indeed, to a certain extent, the empires of Russia 
and Austria furnish an illustration. But where the administration is, 
as in the latter case, the representative of confiicting interests, the de- 
cided strength of any one great interest must, of necessity, explode the 
machine, or re-adjust its arrangements. It is, then, to governments of the 
latter character, that we more especially refer our remarks. To say of 
such a government, that it depends for its existence upon its conformity 



8 THE POSITION AND COURSE OF THE SOUTH. 

to popular ideas, seems almost a truism. To attempt gravely to prove 
that a democracy like New-York would never tolerate a House of Loids, 
or that a commercial people like New-England would never grant pecu- 
liar privileges to landholders, would be a waste of words and time. 
And the general jiroposition would never be questioned, were there in 
the country an unity of political opinion, or were the national interests 
divided into many classes, singly too small for prei)onderance, and 
equally scattered over ih'^ who!.- national territory. Unfortunately, 
however, the most striking feature of our physical history, is the marked 
development of great geographical sections; and the most important 
event in our industrial progress, is the creation of vast interests, bounded 
in their iielils of action by these ineradicable geographical lines. It is 
true that science has achieved, over space and time, trium|)hs almost 
miraculous, but it has not annihilated them. It is true that the j)ant- 
in'T of the steam-engine and the tremor of the magnetic wire indicate 
an unwearied material activity, but still mountain ranges rear their 
heads in unbroken rugged ness — rivers roll their ceaseless currents, and 
oceans heave their world of waters, in discharge, now as ever, of God's 
great commission — to divide the nations. It is almost impossible to 
conquer nature. A dozen bridges across the Rhine would not identify 
the Frenchman and the German ; a tunnel through the Alps would 
scarcely reconcile the Italian to the Austrian ; and it is idle to suppose 
that the mere speed and facility of communication between distant 
geographical sections, will entirely counteract those national peculiari- 
ties, which it is an unerring law of Providenee that tliose divisions 
shall of necessity develope. 

" It was not," says a recent traveller, " until I had sailed a few miles 
from Lutrarki, and observed the. greater cleai'uess with which the Par- 
nassian ranges came out, that 1 realized the fact, that Corinth and Del- 
phi, two cities, morally as opi)Osed to each other as Washington and 
Mecca, were yet physically so close, that the laughter of the midnight 
revellers might almost have met the hymns of the priests midway on 
the waters. What again could be more different than the character of 
Boetia — sacerdotal, traditionary, unchanging — the Hellenic Austria, and 
that of the inventive and mercurial Attica ? And, yet, from the same 
ridge of Parnes, the shepherd descried the capitals of both. How re- 
mote from each other, in character, were Sparta — in which the whole 
hfe of man wa.s one perpetual miliiary discipline — and Athens, in which 
every one went on his own business, after his own fiishion. Yet the 
mariner ran across, in perhaps a day's sail, from the one territory to the 
other, passing on his way communities unlike both." 

In examining, then, the conllicting characters of two great sections, 
it is no unfavourable introduction to such an investigatiun, to disqover 
that n.-Uure herself has drawn di^eply the sectional lines. Now, if a 
map of the settled ])ortion of the North American continent be pre- 
pared, indicating only the great mountain ranges and the large rivers, 
the most su]>erticial review would mark three grand divisions — the 
north, the south, the west. The north and south this side of the Alle- 
ghanies; the west beyond it, having its Pacific border, its bold head- 
lands looking out on Asia ; its capacious harbors and its own rivers, 



TIIK rOSITION AND COURSE OF THE SOUTH. ' • 9 

ri;iiig, running, emptying beyond the niuuntiiins, even their sources 
sepai'ated by iunnense territories from the heights of Atkmtic com- 
merce ; wealth, unbounded wealth, for its inheritance and independence, 
the nece:>sary condition of its future life. Upon this side of the moun- 
tains, two great sections, divided by the Ohio and the Potomac, from 
the Mississippi to the Atlantic; the north possessing in the lakes and 
the St. Lawrence, a channel of commercial communication, reaching 
from Wisconsin to Maine, and the South enjoying in the Mississippi tlie 
same connection from Missouri to Florida. Not only has nature drawn 
these lines, but history, in the action of its providential instinct, has fol- 
lowed their guidance. In the colonization of this continent, who has 
not been struck witli tlie marvellous parallel ? The antithesis of Ply- 
mouth and Jamestown did not end with their settlement. The growth 
of the two great sections, radiated from different centres, diverged in 
distant directions, we\'e developed from ditiering principles, and per- 
fected through dissimilar experiences. For every point of likeness 
in the history of the two plantations, points of difference might be mul- 
tiplied, and from the quaint freshness of the old chronicles might be 
drawn, passage after passage, expressing, in language of the most 
strongest synibohsm, their ancient, continued, and present variance. Nor 
does the argument stop here. As the country has filled up, internal 
improvements have sjiread through the land, in obedience to laws 
hardly ]ierhaps recognized by tliose who planned, and have developed, 
in process of completion, w'ell defined sectional systenas. 

With these preparations for great national differences, no philosoph- 
ical inquirer would be surprised to discover a wide distinction of sen- 
timent and institution; and the student of pohtical principles would 
anticipate the impossibility of the consistent action of a single govern- 
ment. What are the facts? 

There is one relation, lying at the basis of all social and political 
life, the shifting character of which fairly indicates the national progress 
in wealth and civilization — the relation of labour to capital. In the 
history of the world, this relation has, so far, always taken one of three 
shapes — serfdom, slavery, or service that is voluntary labour for wages. 
In the two first, the relation is a moral one, or labour is a duty ; in the 
latter, the relation is a legal one, or labour is the execution of a con- 
tract. But which ever of these shapes it has taken, the history of all 
that is great in achievement — all that is glorious in art — all that is wise 
in law, jtroves that the best interests of humanity require, first, that 
labour should be subordinate to, and controled by capital ; and second, 
that the interests of the two should by that very dependence be as 
closely as possible identified. It may safely be asserted, that wherever 
the relation has been one of contract, the first condition oidy has been 
obtained, and that the interests of labour and capital can never be per- 
manently or properly reconciled, except under the institution of slavery ; 
for it stands to reason, that wherever the political theory of government 
recognizes the equality of labour and capital, while the great reality of 
society sliews the one in hopeless and heaitless dependance on the 
other, tliere will exist betwev.n the two a constant jealousy and a bitter 
strife, the weaker demanding its rights with impotent cursing, or en- 



10 THE POSITION AND COURSE OF THE SOUTH. 

forcing them with revolutionary fierceness. Look for a moment at 
the condition of the operatives of England and France. In both the 
population is free, labour and capital are politiorAliy equal ; while, in 
fact, cajiital tyrannizes with selfish power, holding labour to its terrible 
bond — the obligation a life of barely sustained toil — the penalty death 
by starvation. There is no moral relation between them, and the 
working classes who comprehend political theories only in ])ractical re- 
sults, rebel against the powers that be. In England, the chartist calls 
for equal rej>resentation, denounces the aristocratic institutions within 
which capital strives to entrench itself, and demands logically enough, 
we must say, that the nation should abandon the palpat)le inconsisten- 
cy of free labour and a privilegL-d class. In France, with still stricter 
and more un5cru])ulous logic, the socialist demonstrates that if labour 
and capital are equal in principle, they should he equal in practice, 
and that all pro])erty is theft. That this should be, reason suggests — 
that it ever has been, experience confirms. For while history teems 
with rebellions of free labour against royal power, and feudal preroga- 
tive and class privilege — revolutions which have overthrown dynas- 
ties and changed constitutions, we challenge a solitary example in the 
whole scope of the world's record, where slave labour has risen in suc- 
cessful protest against national nuthority, or even forced from privileged 
power a sin^e political concession. The Hebrew commonwealth, in 
the ])rogress of it.s Divine mission, spread into the proportion of a mag- 
nificent monarchy, and again shruidi into the insignificance of a scattered 
people, and the foundations of its slave institutions were unshaken. 
The kingdoms of Greece sprung struggling from their cradles, but in 
the ]ierpetual strife which strengthened their manhood, the institution 
of slavery never ])erplexed tlioir economy, nor escaped their control. 
The Roman governed the world, and his million of slaves never 
changed an Emperor, nor lost him a province. In the ancient world, 
the relation of labour and capital took the shape of slavery, and what 
disturbance did it work ? In the modern world, it has taken the shape 
of service, and what civil commotion, what parliamentary perplexity 
has it not wrought ? What political question is so terrible to Eng- 
lish statesmen as the condition of England question ? What combi- 
nation more fearful for French politicians than the orgaiii/ation of la- 
•bour ? Without dwelling on this truth, which is capable of an infinity 
of illustration, we have arrived at the first great contradiction between 
the institutions of the North and the South. At the North, the rela- 
tion of labour and capital is voluntary service; at the South, it is in- 
voluntary slavery. At the North, labour and ca]>ital are equal ; at the 
South, labour is inferior to cajutal. At the North, labour and capital 
strive ; the one, to get all it can ; the other, to give as little as it may — 
they are enemies. At the South, labour is dependant on capital, and 
having ceased to be rivals, they have ceased to be enemies. Can a 
more violent contrast b« imagined. The political majority of the North 
represents labour — the political majority of the South represents ca])i- 
tal— can the latter suft'.T the power of "legislation in. the hands of the 
former ? Free labour hates slave labour— capital, at the nu-rcy of la- 



THE I'OSITION AND COURSE OF THE SOUTH, 11 

bour, is jealous of capital owning labour — where are their points of 
sympathy ? 

And it requires but ordinary sagacity to see that this difference of 
relation between labour and capital, necessitates for tlie North and South 
the development of two individual and inconsistaut systems both of 
representation and taxation. If representation be adjusted according 
to the Northern principle of equality of labour and capital, the foundation 
of the social and political state of the South — the subordination of 
labour which is slave to capital, which is master, is at once overturned. 
If on the other hand, representation be based upon the Southern prin- 
ciple of j)ropert)^ the su[)pon of tlie Northern society, the equal right 
of every individual constituent of the Commonwealth, is stricken away, 
and in order to maintain political existence, the North would be forced 
to the creation of a privileged class from individuals claiming equal 
rights. And it may be here remarked that, wherever labour and capital 
have been recognised as theoretically, equal society has been forced in 
self-preservation, to the creation of artificial })rivileged classes. Equality 
of rights and privileges can, in the nature of things, exist only where 
the participants of political power form a separate class, and the labour 
of the countr}" is subjected to it. Where this separation of labour and 
capital is adjusted between jjeople of the same race, there will be more 
or less of struggle — but where the separation is drawn with the distinct- 
ness of colour, the political necessities of this antagonism, assume the 
character of providential arrangements, and execute themselves in har- 
mony witli the highest and purest moral feeling. 

Tliat this strife has not yet developed itself in tierce commotion, is 
owing to circumstances which are fast vanishing; that it must come, 
the whole history of Northern politics declares, and society is busy in 
preparing the elements generated between the two extremes. Now 
these two systems are irreconceivable either in their principles or their 
practice, reason and experience jironounce that can never be joined 
together. 

In the Constitution of the United States, they have both been com- 
prehended — time has changed a compromise of interests into a conflict 
of sections, and the submission of one, or tlie separation of both is the 
only alternative. And not only does this antagonism between the two 
systems of labour and capital exist in the two sections, but it is aggra- 
vated by the mode in which that labour and capital is employed. The 
progress of time has materially altered the great national relations 
which form the staple of the world's political history. Consumer and 
producer are now the great regulating terms of political results, and, 
although there never has been an age in which commercial interests have 
not entered as inlluencing elements into considerations of national policy, 
jet never has the civilized world been so dictatorially governed l>y the 
power of trade. Facility of transport, and the immense capabilities of 
manufacturing invention have not merely stimulated traffic to unparralled 
activity, but have knit the nations together by a chain work of univer- 
sal extent, and exquisite sensitiveness — and not' only so, but like the 
nervous system of the hnmaa body, this subtle and all pervading con- 
ductor rarnity as it may, spreads from one great centre — the cottoq. 



12 THE POSITION AND COURSE OF THE SOUTH. 

trade. Tlie power which controls this traile, holds to a very groat ex- 
tent the fortunes of the world in its hand. The London Times for 
September 7, 1850, speaks thus, in its leader on the Di])lomatic neces- 
sities of Great Britain : " What the circumstances are which would 
make it requisite to have an able officer representing England, in a par- 
ticular country can easily be conceived. A country may have by its 
position and ])ower, a groat influence upon our well being, or it may be 
intimately connected with us by commercial relations. Two countries 
in the world peculiarly represent these classes, France and the United 
States. France has in ]>ast times occupied the first jilace in our regard 
because we have for ages been at war with her, our nearest and most 
powerful neighbour on the Continent. America is of far more impor- 
tance commercially. The commerce of France is of little imj)ortance, 
that with America transcends all others." Now where has nature placed 
the great controlling power of American commerce ? In the South and 
as an unavoidable inference, does it follow that the industrial economy 
and the system of foreign relations of the nation, so far as based on 
commercial jtrinciples, sliould spring from, and be controlled by the cot- 
ton growing States. Why is it otherwise, but that in tlie nation there 
is another section supported by interests antagonist to these, in other 
words, a section which is in fact, a foreign power. We have shown 
that in the vital principle of jxtlitical organization, the relation of labour 
and capital, the North and the South are irreconceivably hostile, that their 
social and political systems cannot co-exist — that the one in the nature of 
things wages internecine war against the other. Now we need not at- 
tempt to prove that cotton can be produced in quantities suflicient for 
the world's wants, only where labour and ca))ital stand in the relation of 
master and slave. Experience has decided that question if it has set- 
tled no other. What is the result ? Why that throwing aside the va- 
riance in the systems of representation and taxation above referred to — 
the North and South are diametrically op]iosed to each other on those 
most essential political relations which govern the wealth, the civiliza- 
tion, the national existence of the South. More than this — the vast 
extent and pre-eminent inriuence of the cotton trade divide the com- 
mercial nations of the world into two classes — those who produce cot- 
ton ajid those who manufacture it. They are. it is true, mutually de- 
pendant; but, according to that principle of selfishness which God hjvs 
for wise purposes implanted in every breast, they are each bent on 
using the other at the lowest remuneration — each wishes to have the 
best of the bargain, and between foreign nations this is all right ; this 
competition has served, and will serve wise purposes. Now to which 
class does the northern section of this confederacy b<'long ? What grea- 
ter sympathy does the North feel for us as a cotton growing section 
than IS felt l)y England ? Does a cotton bale meet any inore fraternal 
regard in the way of ]irices in New- York than it does in Liverpool ? 
What more sympathy is there between the .southern planter and the 
abolition manufacturer of Lowell, than exists between him and the 
spinner of Manchest.-r >. We speak the s;ime language with both — our 
historical associations cluster upon English soil with niore fervour and 
frequency than upon the coast of Dutch Manhattan — our transactions 



THE POSITION AND COURSE OF THE SOUTH. 



13 



with the Enghshnian count up in hirgor ciphers? What makes the 
one less a foreigner than the otlier, but the assumed right of our nor- 
thern brother to meddle that he may mar ? And we say boldly that 
it would bfi as wise, as safe, as honourable, to trust our domestic insti- 
tutions and our foreign interests to the Parliament of Great Britain as 
to a Congress with a northern majority. ]Say, wiser and safer, for her 
colonial experience has taught England never again to sacritice her pro- 
fits to her philanthropy. 

Again. Our foreign relations are every day assuming growing and 
graver importance. And here the same antagonism of interest devel- 
opes itself. The two principles of the foreign system of the great 
Northern section, as expressed by their statesmen and leading journals, 
being, 1. The extension of their commercial interests in foreign mar- 
kets, bringing them into active dijiloraatic rivalry with Great Britain ; 
and, 2. The manifestation of a spirit of [propagandist licence, inspiring 
them to intermeddle in the domestic struggles of every foreign nation, 
where there arises a contest between constituted authority and revolu- 
tionary restlessness. The annexation of Canada, which is fast becom- 
ing from a remote speculation, a matter of party policy. The hasty 
welcome to the socialist government of France — a government which 
signalized its brief history by colonial emancipation and domestic 
bankruptcy — the demagogue denunciation of the Austrian court — are 
all significant indications of popular sentinifnt and national systems. 
Now'look at the position of the South — cultivated by a slave popula- 
tion — supplying the staple of the world's manufacture, and ranged in 
imposing strength around the Gulf of Mexico, so as to command the 
trade of the Isthmus connection — what should be the foundation prin- 
ciples of her foreign relations. 1. A close alliance with the few great 
manufacturing nations, an anxiety to see them creating markets and 
multiplying tlieir production ; and, 2. An unchangeable resolution to 
leave the interior atlairs of other nations to their own discussion, and a 
careful abstinence from all legislative reflection on foreign institutions, 
which, like our own, may be censured only because they are not com- 
prehended. With these two basis of foreign action, and the command 
of the Gulf and the cotton trade, the South would be, in the maturity 
of her strength, the guardian of the woi'ld's commerce — the grave and 
impartial centre of that new balance of power, which, at no distant day, 
will Ije adjusted by the experience of the old and the energy of the 
new world, working together for the best interests of humanity. 

It would be easy to illustrate, in a more special manner and in fuller 
detail, these sectional difterences in social systems — in industrial inter- 
ests— in foreign policy. But such an analysis would run too parallel 
with party history, which it is our anxious desire to avoid, and our con- 
clusions upon which, we are atVaid, would be acceptable to none. But, 
surely enough has been said to indicate the grounds upon which we 
may justly, and with no exaggeration, conclude that the Institutions of 
the two sections are diametically opposed. If it can be proved that the 
government is with the Northern section of the Confederacy, the utter 
want of sympathy between that <jlovernment and the South, is, as a 
consequence, established — the due relation between the two is broken, 



14 THE POSITION AND COURSE OF TRK SOUTH. 

and we must look for safety at home. What, then, is the position of 
the Goveniinont ? Ouv answer is very brief: The sense of wrong is 
too strong for the elaboration of syllogisms. There never yet wivs an 
lionest feeling that did not spring from a correct thought. We feel that 
we are weak — it cannot take us long to think out the same conclusion. 
We will avoid a metaphysico political discussion on the checks of the 
Constitution. The experience of the last twenty years, from General 
Jackson downwards, has proved that the Prc'-ident, as has been admi- 
rably sai<i, " is a demagogue by position " — that the House of Repre- 
sentatives represent popular passions and interests — that in the Senate 
only is to be found the conservative element of government Now the 
representative majority is Northern — the ]^residential electoral majority 
is Northern — and since the admission of California, the Senatorial ma- 
jority is Northern. Can a multiplication table work out results more 
certain. If the government obeys the popular spirit which creates and 
sustains it, what must it do but reflect Northern sentiment, sustain 
Northern interests, impersonate Northern power. I""or argument sake, 
we will admit that the admission of California is right — that a savage 
greediness for gold is the purest of .social bonds — that a State is admirably 
adapted to influence national legislation, where its heads are the shrewd- 
est of speculators and its body the outcasts of every population under 
heaven. We will admit tliat Texas ought to pocket, in an extravagance 
of jockeying triumph, her ten millions, and chuckle at the market price of 
patri(H blood and State pride — she may have more to spare, and she h:us 
found a generous customer. We will admit that Virginia and Maryland 
are but intru<lers in the District of Columbia, and if not acce|itable, 
should be removed without even notice to (juit; they gave the land to 
their Northern brethren — what more have they to do with it. We will 
admit, with Mr. Toombs, that the South has nothing at all to complain 
of, but jvs we do not know what we may have to censure, we earnestly ask 
every Southern man to take a list of the States and hanng separated the 
two sections, make the simplest of calculations, and then, with neither 
the fear nor favour of party before his eyes, answer the question, 
What is the ])osition of the South ? In case — and we may in argument 
imagine so improbable a thing — in case our rights should be attacked, 
where is our constitutional protection? The mournful but indignant 
echo from the jia'^t answers — where ? If, then, the lessons of experi- 
ence are worth the reading — if the political events of the last few 
months are not illusions — if the expression of outraged feeling all 
through our Southern land, be any thing but the wild ravings of wicked 
faction — it is time for the South to act tirmly, promptly, and for ever, 
liut one safe path is open to her honour, and that is. Secession and the 
formation of an Independent Confederacy. Another plan lia.s indeed 
been j)roposed and sanctioned by great names, but to us it seems either 
impracticable or identicjil with the first. It is a re-adjustment of the 
constitutional comjiact, so as to recognize the independence of each 
section as to its domestic ]'olicy. The formation of a Union somewhat 
anal.igous to the Corman confederation, by which a ZoUvcrein should 
regulate our indu>^trial ))olicy and a I Met controul c)ur foreign relations. 
That this can be obtained from the North without force, we do not bo- 



THE POSITION AND COURSE OF THE SOUTH. 15 

lieve, and tlie only circumstances under whicli such an arran^-ement 
could be eftected, would be the absolute national indei)endence of the 
two sections and their willingness to enter into treaty stipulations with 
each other, as to such interests as might be common between them. 
So far, then, this scheme implies secession. But we do not honestly 
think that the elements of our jiolitical constitution could be combined 
after such a fashion, and with this reference we leave the subject. What 
are the objections to the first course of action ? They shall be stated as 
strongly as we have been able to find them— in the language too of 
Southern men. At a meeting of the citizens of Bibb county, in 
Georfia, on Sept. 28, 1850, a report was adopted, which uses the fol- 
lowing language: 

"The dangers that would attend a dissolution of the Union, we 
regard as palpable and imminent. In our opinion, it would bo followed 
bv the most disastrous consequences. 

" 1. It will gain for the South no additional guaranties for her che- 
rished institutions. It will not check the spirit of fanaticism at the 
North, nor secure the extension of slavery into California, 

'' 2. It will result in a civil, perhaps servile war, wliich would absorb 
all our resources, furce us into a system of direct taxation, and render 
property less secure than at preseni, both in Georgia and in the border 
States. 

" 3. It would comj)el the slaveholders in the bordei' States to push 
their negroes into the Southern markets, and thus force the jilanters of 
Georgia and adjoining States to pay Virginia, Kentucky and Maryland 
for manumitting their slaves. 

'■ 4. It would force the more southern States ultimately to secede 
again from the new confederacy, or to fall back upon sejjarate organi- 
zations, and thus give to the South a set of petty States, without either 
power or respectability. 

" 5. Under such circumstances, the people of the South would have 
neither men nor monej' with which to carry shivery into California. 
They would not be able to retain it at home, much less to force it across 
to the shores of the Pacific. 

"G. All these causes, operating conjointly, would limit the area of 
slavery to a few of the South Atlantic and Gulf States^ — wliere the 
lands would soon become exhausted— where slave labour would cease 
to remunerate — where the slaves themselves would l)e worthless, and 
the institution become a tax upon the people. 

" 7. The final result of the whole matter would be, that the owners 
would be compelled to abolish slavery in self-defence — because the pro- 
perty itself will become valueless, and they would have no means left 
to support it ! 

" Here, then, are some of the curses of dissolution ; and, in our candid 
opinion, if the Union is severed^, it will not require a quarter of a cen- 
tury to consummate this grand 'scheme of mischief and ruin." 

Our analysis of these objections will divide them into two classes : 
1. That a secession of the Southern States cannot be eflt'ectcd without 
war, civil or servile — ])erha|)S both. 2. That, if eft', eted, it would not 
answer the purposes of its formation. 



16 THE POSITION AND COURSE OF THE SOUTH. 

The first objection is not a legitimate one. It is simply a selfish 
unwillin:^ness to suffer, in order to succeed. If the rights in question 
are worth a struggle, the necessit}- of the conflict is no argument against 
the pro|)riety of action. If the duty of tbe citizen is clear, the perils 
of the strife become patriotic privileges, and tbe fact that war is inevi- 
table only proves to what an extent we have endured before we have 
ventun-d to resist — only demonstrates the power of that unrighteous 
authority against which we are forced to arm. We say nothing in 
mitigation of the unimaginable horrors of 'a civil war — dangers arc not 
disarmed liy self-dece])tiun, and if these terrors lie direct in our path, 
look at them full but firmly ; but there are more terrible disasters than 
war, and in the perpetual cry of peace, peace, there is as much selfish- 
ness as sense. This world is not one of peace — its wisest and highest 
teacher brought into its troubled life " not peace but a sword," and 
nothing of national greatness or individual good has been achieved 
without sacrifice and sorrow. It is a truth of history, untouched by an 
exception, that no nation has ever yet matured its jiolitical growth 
without the stern and scarring expcrienct of civil war. The God of this 
world's history is indeed the God of Hosts, and he who shrinks, in the 
plain path of duty, from that last apjx'al to arms, is not more holy 
than he is wise. But, while prepared for any consequence, where is 
the probability of civil war resulting from Southern secession i In the 
first place, what motive would influence the North to an invasive war ? 
If there be any truth in the protests of our Northern brethren — if 
slavery be a burden to their consciences, why interfere against an Exodus 
which would carry with it the plague — why not let the South and 
slavery go together ? It can only be because the mdustrial prosperity 
of the North is, to a great degree, dependent upon Southern labour 
and Southern consumption. If this be so — and every financial docu- 
ment proves it — if tiiis be so, the question submitted to Northern states- 
men nuiy be stated thus : As a nation, we draw our wealth, in great 
measure, from the Southern production of cotton and the Southern 
consumption of our manufactured cotton. Federal legislation enabled 
us to bvii! !U by that production and to control the remuneration on 
that consumption. The South has seceded, our relations are broken ; 
in what way can they be restored ? Shall we fight i To do so we uiust 
make up our minds to stop our manufactories ; to give up our sujiply 
of cotton ; to surrender our Southern market, for a time at least, to 
Engli^h rivals — bear up against the financial embarrassments necessary 
on such a state of things, and undertnk.', at the same time, the mainte- 
nance of a costly army and navy, and the supjiort of a distant war : 
for we must act offensively. Will this pay, if it succeeds, and is success 
certain ? The j^resent army and navy would, to a large extent, be 
unofticered, the whole body of Southern officers having resigned — 
among them experienced, efficient, abk; men, fitted to organize Southern 
forces. Then the war of the revolution and the war of 1812 have 
proved that Southern armies subsist themselves on their own soil, witli 
half the trouble and expense that foreign forces must employ. The 
military experience of the country points to the South as emphatically 
the region of soldiers : and, lastly, can such a war be protracted for a 



THE POSITION AND COURSE OF THE SOUTH. 17 

period suffieit'iit to art'eet Soulliern prosperity or Southern spirit, -svitliout 
the interference of those great foreig'u powers whose commerce is con- 
trolled by the cotton manutiicture, and who would be most materially in- 
jured by a suspension of American trade ? Who can, for a moment, 
doubt the conclusion at which Northern sagacity would ariive ? ■ If the 
South acts unitedly, the apprehension of civil war is the idlest of fears. 
As to a servile war, we have scai'cely patience to refer to it. We do 
not believe that any man, born and bred at the South, reared among 
negroes and familiar with their htibits, ever entertained such an idea. 
We have passed through two wars, and we have yet to read the record 
of one servile insurrection of any military consequence, and may in 
all justice decline reply to an argument which cannot base itself on even 
a resj)ectable probability. 

So much for the first class of objections. Ni-)\v let us look at the 
second, viz: that Southern secession, if succes'sful, would not effect its 
purposes. And the first point to be settled is, what are those purposes? 
why should we secede? We lionestly believe that much of the unwil- 
lingness that does undoubtedly exist in some quarters, to concerted 
Southern action, springs from a inisconcepiion on this point. Manj 
think that we are calleil upon to rebel against practical oppression — to 
overturn some special congi'cssional enactment — and we are in conse- 
quence met by such replies as, "How am I oppressed? — you cannot un- 
State California. If Texas chooses to sell her lands how can we com- 
plain ? 

The true position of the South is this : — From the formation of the 
government there have existed, in the two great sections of the Union, 
pohtic il systems, opposed in principle. Recent events have developed 
into excited hostility these contradictions, and, just at the time when 
sectional interests are most antagonistic, the government, by the admis- 
sion of Calfornia, has destroyed the balance of power betwjeen the two 
sections, and placed the South, its interests, and its institutions, in help- 
less dependence upon Northern majorities. Will not the establishment 
of a Southern confederacy, with a homogeneous population, and an 
united government, relieve the South from this false and dangerous 
situation, enable her to control her own fortunes, and use, to the best 
advantage, the strength of her natural position. 

The prime element of national Southern strength, is commerce ; the 
peculiar character of the Southern staple identifying agriculture and 
commerce more com[)letely than in any olher national experience. It 
is in relation to commericial questions, that the South would come in 
contact with foreign ])Owers, and by her industrial policy, that she 
would influence remote countries. Rivalry, on these points, with foreign 
nations, exists only in the northern section of the republic. The forma- 
tion of an independent Southern confederacy, vv aild give to the South, 
the c<jntrol of its industrial policy and its commercial connection ; thus 
arming it, at the very outset of its national career, with diplomatic 
power, and at the same time, from the character of those interests, pro- 
pitiating all foreign jealousy, and inviting the cordial alliance of Euro- 
pean powers. The advantages of snch a position are incalculable, and 
the most selfish interests of the foreign world would be prompted to a 



18 TIIK POSITION AND COURSE OF TUE SOUTH. 

speedy recojjnition of our national independence. When we consider 
too, that cuiiipk-tion of the Istliniiis connection i>romis.js to make the 
Gulf of Mexico the tlu-atre of a mightier commerce than that which, 
in the days of ancient Koine, civilized the classic shores of the Mediter- 
ranean, and gave the provincial city of Alexandria a place among the 
capitals of history, or that which illuminated with its treasure the pages 
of Venetian and Genoan story, we must acknowledge that the formation 
of a Southern confederacy, at least so far as regards its foreign relations, 
bids fair to place the South, an equal among the nations of the earth. 

If then secession fails in its purpose, it can only be in respect to its 
domestic policy. What do we exj»ect in this regard ? That a ho- 
mogeneous people, governed by the same sentiment and acting upon 
the same interests, will give to their government unity of character, 
and thus that parties will be formed by a fair difference of opinion on 
national measures, and not ii);on tlieoretical difterences as to the nature 
of the government itself. That the government placed in immediate 
and active sympathy with popular institutions, will devote itself to the 
practical jiertection of those in-^titutions, and will cut oft" all extraneous 
agitation. Of course we can no more prevent the expression of North- 
ern sentiment at the North, than we can check the eloquence of Exeter 
Hall in London, but then the agitation at the North will aft'ect us only 
in the same degree. As to tin; expression of opinion, the world may 
think as it plejises, and say what it thinks. We do not complain of 
Northern sentiment, except where having achieved j^olitical representa- 
tion, it undertakes to act in Congress. Through the nntional councils 
only does it reach us, and there only do we protest ag:;in-.t it. England 
and Miissachusetts — Lord Palmerston and Gov. Briggs — both think 
the law of Soutli-Carolina, imprisoning coloied seamen, a very un- 
feeling measure. They are botli opposed to it in sentiment. But 
wla-n the practical action of that State brought the question before the 
British Parliament, Lord Palmerston very wisely said that nothing 
could be done, foreign powers made their own police law When the 
same question came before the Massachusetts Legislature, Gov. l^riggs 
appealed to the constitution, and sent an ambassador to di>pute our 
rights on our own soil. To this extent, then, at least, an independent 
government could and would check agitation ; would suppress that of ; 
which only we complain, leijislative ayitalion. But, says, the report J 
above quoted, all this may be true as to the body of the confederacy, I 
but vou must sacrifice the border States ; and of couree as tliis aban- ' 
donment of the border States will only make new Staters on the nar- 
rowed border, there will fallow another series of sacrifices, and the i 
f'reat Southern confederacy will be thus border on to destruction. This I 
may I'C witty, it is scarcely \>ise, W\^ have been so long accustomed 
to iiave the ocean on one side, and a blank wildness on the other, that 
the sense of neighbourhood with certain politicians, is a fearful experi- i 
ence. They cannot realize that two nations can be at peace in each | 
other's presence. With them, 'tis distance that gives safety to the view. I 
Now, in the first place, as agitation would be expected on th(^e l>orders, j 
it would be guard, d against, and if tlie price of liberty is eternal vigi- 
lance, we would not conijilain of paying the same price for slavery. 



3477-59 
Lot U 



THE POSITION AND COURSE OF THE SOUTH. 19 

But, in tlie next place, agitation would be very cautious bow it crossed 
tbe line, when on tbe other side it had no common constitution to ap- 
peal to, and realized the risk of trial by the laws of the offending party. 
Even fanaticism is not reckless of its own safety. Again, there are two 
sides to tliis same border difficulty. If Virginia and Maryland and 
Kentucky are border States, so are Ohio and Pennsylvania. Now, if 
the argument be that these first States will be more exposed to the spoli- 
ation of their property, Ohio and Pennsylvania will be more exposed to 
the evils of retaliation. It is not to be supposed that a Southern 
government would fold its arms quietly at such a violation of its terri- 
tory, and is it any more supposable that Ohio and Pennsylvania would 
allow their borders to be infested by a set of niiscreants, whose action 
would be to draw on these States the evils of a ]:)erpetual border war- 
fare. Indeed, if selfishness has not lost its cunning, the border States 
of a Northern confederacy wouW be the safest neighbours for their 
border brethren of the South. The arguments of the repoit as to the 
deterioration of the value of slaves, is of course based upon the success- 
ful result of this agitation. If, therefore, there be any justice in our 
argument, that not only will the South have the power, but that it will 
be" the direct interest of the Northern border States, to suppress agita- 
tion, the whole force of the report on this head is broken. The weak- 
ness of this position could be demonstrated from other points of view, 
l)ut th<?y would not come within the scope of the present argument. 
Enough of the r^'port and its resolutions. 

One more objection, and we have done. There are many men wlio 
have grown old in the Union, who feel an honest aad pardonable regret 
at thethought of its dissolution. The enthusiasm of their boyhood, 
tlie hopes of their manhood, the calm honours of their age belong to the 
completed circle of the past. They have felt themselves parties to the 
great experiment of political self-government, they have prided them- 
selves on the successful demonstration of that great problem, and they 
feel that the dissolution of the Union, proclaims a mortifying failure. 
Put it is not so. The vital principle of political liberty is representa- 
tive government, and when federal arrangements are discarded, that 
li\cs in original vigor — it has become the characteristic of our race, to 
spread with our emigrant millions over continents, and into the hidden 
isles of distant seas. Who does not consider the greatest triumph of the 
I '.ritish constitution, the facility .with which it adapted itself to the altered 
rondition of its colonies — the vigour with which under slight modifica- 
ti<jns, it developed into the great republican government, under which 
we have accomplished our national progress. 

And so it will be with our own constitution ; the elements of constitu- 
tional liberty, may be slightly varied in their action under different gov- 
ernments; but they will act with energy for they have been incorpo- 
rated into the national character. The experiment instituted by our 
fathers will receive its highest illustration and a coritinent of great re- 
publics, equal, independent, and allied, will demonstrate to the world 
the capabilities of republican, constitutional government. That the dis- 
solution of the Union must come, even without the present agitation, at 
no distant day, is almost a historical necessity ; for the history of the 



20 THE POSITION AND COURSE OF THE SOUTH. 

world is tlie recdiJ of the aggTcgatioii and dissolution of great empires. 
National individuality seems to be the agent of ]Vovidence in the con- 
duct of the world, and having, in the extension uf our territories to the 
extremest Western verge aocomjdished the fii-st part of our destiny, wo 
are about to fuliil the second in creating those separ-ite national inte- 
rests and individual national jieculiarities, to tlie attrition of which is 
due the varied and brilliant civilization of modern times. 

We have thus endeavoured to suggest the elements of the present 
discussion. The question is the gravest tliat can well be imagined — it 
is invested with a solemn responsibility, and rises above the flippant 
passion and uncertain temper of ordinary politics. W^e believe that the 
interests of the southern country demand a se])arate and independent 
government. We believe that the time has come when such a govern- 
ment can be established temperately, wisely, strongly. But in effecting 
this separation, we would not disown our indebtedness, our gratitude 
to the past. The Union lias redeemed a continent to the christian 
world — it has fertilized a wilderness, and converted the rude force of 
nature into the benelicent action of a civilized agriculture. It has en- 
riched the world's commerce with the untold wealth of a new and 
growing trade. It has spread over tlie vj\st territories of this new laud 
the laws, the language, the literature of the Anglo-Saxon race. It has de- 
veloped a population with whom liberty is identical with law, and in 
training thirty-three States to manhood, has fitted them for the fespon- 
sibility of independent national life. It has given to history sublime 
names, which the world will not willingly let die — heroic actions which 
will light the eyes of a far-coming enthusiasm. It lias achieved its 
destiny. Let us achieve ours. 



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